As a Linux newbie, I have a security question I hope someone won't think is to dumb to answer.

I just installed openSuse (took HOURS to download all of the upgrades) on a WinXP machine and it's now working as a dual boot machine. What I'm wondering is what do you folks add to Suse after install, if anything?

When building a Windoze machine, I always immediately add ZoneAlarm, Avast!Antivirus, Ad-Aware, Firefox, a PDF reader, WinZip, etc., within minutes of going online for the first time. What do you add to Suse? Anything? I see Suse comes with Firefox, but do I need to find and download equivalents to the other programs?

Do I have to worry about viruses, trojans, worms, keyloggers at all or just a little?

Can someone give me a little guidance here?

THANKS!

(I did a search for 'antivirus' and 'antispyware' in openSuse and nothing comes up. I did a search here on the forum but found nothing similar to my question).

It is just a hint because you just come windows , never go on the internet as root even more us as less as possible
it is safer and is if need root privelage us su
Well worry about viruses and so on not too much
But AvastAntivirus there is also a Linux version and you can install I did just to be sure
And there is also Clamav
In firefox I ad WOT and ABP because I do not like popup and advertisment
Suse has I sort of PDF reader
By using suse you find out with programs you need there is alot out there

Thanks ronlau9, I've added the Linux version of Avast!Antivirus. The GUI will take a little getting use to, and the fact that it's not proactive might be a minor problem but I'll get use to it.

So, I guess none of the rest of you security experts add anything to Linux after a fresh install? Nothing is needed to keep out spyware or keyloggers or anything?

Thanks!

So far, there appears to be no spyware for Linux, so there are no anti-spyware tools. As far as keyloggers go, the iptables firewall which is inbuilt to every Linux distro is one tool to combat information leaving your PC/server. You could also look at using rootkit hunter or similar. The rest of the rules are the same as for Windows - don't use the admin account as your regular account, keep the patches and security fixes up to date, don't install anything that you are unsure of, if someone has physical access to your box it makes it less secure and use good strong passwords.

Fact is that crackers and the like tend to target Linux desktops far less than Windows desktops. That is true right now, but may not be true in the future so don't get complacent.

Thanks for the info...

So, when you say don't use the admin account...that means don't be the 'root' user? So when I power up the computer, it boots to the openSUSE desktop, at that point I'm not 'root' unless a dialog box pops up and tells me that I need to type in the password to do something? Is that correct?

Or do I need to create another user account and use that like in WinXP?

That's correct.

If you are getting behavior like you mentioned above (where you get asked for the root password when you want to do system administration type stuff), then you are most likely already using a regular non-root account. But you can always see what user account you are using by opening a virtual terminal and executing this command:

When the install of opensuse is going totally correct she asked you to create a user account including password.
In suse 11 she also ask you if roots password also apply for root
When you do nothing els you automaticly login as that user
When you disabled the auto login you get a login screen
Of course you can create as many users as you like
This is the different with WIndows xp for instance ,here you have to create a user latter on